mercredi 22 février 2017

Alcool, psychiatrie et société

The medicalisation of alcohol use has become a prominent discourse that guides policy makers and impacts public perceptions of alcohol and drinking. This symposium intends to map the historical and cultural dimensions of these phenomena. Emphasis is on medical attitudes and theories regarding alcohol and the changing perception of alcohol consumption in the fields of psychiatry and mental healing. The intention is to explore the shift from the use of alcohol in clinical treatment, as part of dietary regimens, incentive to work and reward for desirable behaviour during earlier periods to the emergence of alcoholism as a disease category that requires medical intervention, is covered by medical insurance and considered as a threat to public health.

Papers on all historical periods, on different cultures and on orthodox as well as heterodox forms of mental healing are invited. Deadline for submission of abstracts: 31 March 2017.

The conference is a collaborative initiative and supported by Humanities and Social Sciences at Oxford Brookes University (UK) and the Research Unit for the History of Medicine at the Centre for Psychiatry Südwürttemberg, Ravensburg (FRG).